Recruiters hate spam CVs so when job-seeking, remember to adapt your CV to your job application according to your skills, the employer, the market in which it sits and the role being offered.
There are a few styles of CVs, the most used by students and graduates being the traditional CV, a chronological or reverse-chronological account of your life and education, for example GCSE results and different previous employment positions. With a chronologically or reverse-chronologically structured CV there are endless opportunities to customise and target the information to graduate jobs. When writing a traditional CV, remember to write your name and contact details at the top and include details of your education at the top of your CV, in reverse chronological order. Write any work experience and employment history, also in reverse-chronological order. For each experience or employment, describe your major duties and achievements. It helps to begin each description with an action verb, for example 'Increased' or 'Developed'. Remember to stick to the point and keep your desired job in mind as your write, tailoring your work experience and employment to your career goals.
A second type of CV is the skills-based CV, which draws more attention to the skills you have developed than the events that have made up your life, such as education. This CV must contain considerable evidence to back up any statement made about any skills acquired. Remember to keep theses CVs to the point, as graduate recruiters tent to dislike CVs that are over-the-top or pompous. The Combination CV, a third style of CV, includes elements of both traditional and skills-based CVs.
Make sure that you always tailor your CV to the career you are hoping for. An employer of a law firm will not be nearly as impressed with work experience at a vegetable farm as they will with experience shadowing a judge or doing an internship at a law firm. Give the most space to the more important facts of your life, and the ones you think will serve you best to enhance your CV and help it stick out.
